McKayla Maroney Takes Legal Action Over Nude Photos Leak; Lawyers Claim Olympian Was Underage

Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney has taken legal action over the alleged hacking of her photos, claiming she was underage when they were taken. Maroney's photos surfaced on several pornography websites since their leak over the weekend.

An attorney for Maroney, 18, contacted the website Porn.com demanding the immediate removal of the Olympic gold medalist’s nude pictures, while a second attorney contacted other pornography sites claiming that Maroney owned the copyright on the hacked photos, TMZ reported late Tuesday. However, Maroney had taken to Twitter on Monday denying that the alleged nude photos were hers. She later thanked her fans for their support in another tweet.

TMZ reported that the actions of her lawyers are a “strong indication” that the nude photos claiming to be that of Maroney may not be fake. The celebrity gossip website also reported that Porn.com had confirmed it had removed the photos after Maroney's lawyer informed them that she was underage when the photos were clicked.

On Tuesday, Reddit sent a message to its users warning them about Maroney’s age.

"Effective immediately: any images/galleries/torrents/megadumps/etc containing McKayla Maroney or Liz Lee will be immediately due to the fact that they were underage (<18) in the photos taken,” the site said in a post.

Reddit also reportedly mentioned Liz Lee, an actress whose American comedy series “My Life As Liz” debuted on MTV in January 2010, as saying that she “was not part of the leaks, but people have been posting her images anyways. Liz's pictures were taken in 2007 when she was 16 years old by an ex of hers…Due to this, we will be removing any and all things that contain their images. It is considered CP (Child Pornography), and breaks reddit's site-wide rules (in addition to international law, age of consent is completely different than child pornography), and will get this subreddit banned if we were to allow them to be posted."